I extend my deep appreciation to so many individuals and groups (please see below) who make our department a vibrant place to teach and learn. 

Thank you to the many faculty who do such important, less-visible work on department and university committees. In spring, we will be working to clarify our department's vision for service equity, following up on a three-year initiative led by Faculty Affairs to clarify service roles and responsibilities on our campus.  My hope is that, through community discussion and revision of our department by-laws, we will minimize the stress around service workload and promote greater transparency and ownership of our department's values about service.  Our work in the spring will also enable us to document the tremendous investment of energy our faculty and staff have put into teaching, advising, organizing, advocating, mentoring, innovating, and more during the past couple years. 
 

Thank you to our lecturer faculty in particular who have endured such pain and disruption in their professional lives this past semester. For many of you who have not been offered classes in Spring 2024 (or offered less than what you need), I thank you for the determination, grace, and self-advocacy you have demonstrated over the past year.  You definitely inspire me to keep pressing forward and to advocate on your behalf and for our students in the Writing Program.  

 

On a final note…

 

The Winter Solstice is just around the corner. We spend so much of our academic lives marking time with deadlines, semester starts and ends, and schedules.  I am so glad to be reminded that there are other markers of time like changes in warmth and light. 
 

I hope that during this solstice period, we all find time to retreat and rest, and I mean, really rest.  Our 2023 is ending with many unresolved and painful conflicts, locally and globally.  My wish for everyone is that you find ways to get good sleep and restore the energy you need to do hard work in the new year. Africana Studies Professor Shawn Ginwright talks about the need “to cultivate the reservoir of presence”.  I love that phrase.  I hope that our collective reservoir will sustain us and help us thrive in Spring 2024. 

​

Please be well, stay safe, and take care, 

​

Maricel